Halloween - The Good and the Bad

When I was little I would have told you that I love Halloween.  I loved dressing up and going trick or treating.  I loved the getting all that candy.  I was a goblin, Billy Idol (don't hate me), a cat, Peter Frampton (it was the time of year), a tampon, a witch (well I finally got to dress up like one), and whatever else was so popular that I had to do it.  I remember getting all excited beforehand.  And driving my mother nuts.  Is it Halloween yet?  Mommy, what about tonight?  Do we go trick or treating?  Just like my kids do to me today.

I even remember going into houses that were set up like haunted houses.  Yes it was safer back then.  There's always the guy up the street that decorates his yard like a graveyard.  Or someone is jumping out of the bushes to scare the kids.  All of this is done in good faith.

I love how excited Faith and Jason are about Halloween.  Jason is already set up with his skeleton outfit.  Faith has her Phat Cat outfit.  They are both so incredibly adorable in them.  I can't wait to take pictures of them.  We are planning on trying to carve jack-o-lanterns this year as well.  That makes me nervous.  I'm not crafty at all.  It might look like the grim reaper when I am done.  Wait is it suppose to look like that?

I love ghost stories.  I can even handle a few horror movies during the season with my husband.  Not with the kids.  They are too young.  We will do the cartoon ones with them.  I can't wait to see Linus waiting on The Great Pumpkin.  I can remember watching that cartoons with all of my siblings.  Such great memories.

And I thought it was incredibly cute (and stupid) that my husband taught Jason at 3 years old to say.  "Trick or Treat, Smell my feet, give me something good to eat."  It was cute because Jason was saying it.  It was stupid because my husband truly did not think that Jason would actually say it to someone else.  I walked Faith last year.  Ken told me that he told Jason like 15 different times not to say it.  He said it at every house they went to.  Hmmm is that egg on Ken's face I wonder?  I am always telling him not to teach them these things.  (giggles)

Now having said that obviously I like Halloween.

But....

As a parent, I worry for the following reasons:

1. It was a lot safer back when I was smaller.  Or we just didn't know it wasn't.  I mean I even walked into stranger's house.  Did my parents realize the danger that put me in back then?
2. I worry about my kids eating their treats before they get home.  What if someone put something in them?  We are being warned every year to check the candy for needles and razor blades, drugs, arsenic or strychnine.  Don't eat it if there is a hole in the wrapping.  So I take juice and treats with me that I know are safe.  But what if I don't see them sneaking.
3. Hospitals are seeing a lot of bad things on Halloween to simply feel the thrill of Halloween.  Devil worshipping kind of activities such as self-mutilation.
4. This is the biggest one of all..  The thing that scares me the most.  I am there with my kids.  Ken takes one child.  I take the other one.  We might be walking together.  But our eyes never leave the child that we are taking.  You see, it's normal for kids to be screaming because of scary things they see.  I can't believe that kids aren't kidnapped that night more than any other night.  What's one more scream?

Having said that.  Yes I will be taking my kids trick-or-treating.  I will be taking them to the pumpkin patch.  I will let them be involved in this wonderful time for kids.  But I will worry all the same.

This is simply thoughts.  Anyone have others?